At Buckland + Rempel, when we conduct a search for someone who will succeed in a leadership role, we take into consideration critical components of “fit.”, but what is “fit” and how can it be measured?
These elements of fit are hard skills that the new hire brings to the table, the cultural match with the client we serve, the potential new hire’s aspirations and “The Trust Factor” felt by those interviewing the potential candidate under consideration.
With the use of a recruiters robust database, and intense training in the use of Boolean search strings through LinkedIn and on the internet, a recruiter should able to find people with the hard skills and evaluate their aspirations that would make them a viable candidate to interview. While these aspects are keenly important, they are also the most easily visible and often distract interviewers from the two remaining determinations of “cultural fit” and “The trust factor.”
Let’s talk about “cultural fit” as it is unique to each company. Popular literature will suggest culturally, and therefore “fit” of those in the particular culture, is determined from five key areas:
- Push – the amount of resistance that an organization requires and will tolerate during times of change. Think of an agency that would grant licenses or approvals to established laws as opposed to a large established brand fast food retailer starting a new store.
- Pace – the verbal, mental and physical pace at which an organization moves, best to think of the difference between a parole board, and a young IT company in the gaming space.
- Play – the cultural fit that makes working together a daily joy and resolves the minor differences in the other areas, or the apparent lack of cultural fit that exacerbates even the smallest conflicts.
- Power – Committee or Military? “power” are structures that create authority in organizations. Is there a team that shares in success (think committee) or is there a clear power hierarchy (think military)
- Principles – assesses flexibility versus rigidity, recognizing that an executive with a rigid principle framework will struggle in an organization with flexible principles and vice versa. I highly regulated industry such as banking would have more rigid principles than a company inventing a new robotics device.
Now that you have determined that the lead candidate has the hard skills to do the job, and will fit culturally, it’s now time to determine “the trust factor” which I believe is as equally important as cultural fit.
Interestingly, there may not be anything in our lives that is more foundational to both business and personal relationships than trust, and yet, for most of us, we have never really thought about what builds trust and what diminishes trust. It seems almost like that sixth sense – an intuition that either protects us or exposes our vulnerabilities. In actuality, there are elements of trust, “signals” that we will recognize as good indicators of trustworthiness and that we can then send to build confidence in meaningful relationships.
The first signal in measuring trust comes from listening to what someone says about himself or herself. If someone tells you that they will tell untruths, although it may seem counter-intuitive…they are not lying. Another way people may verbalize a lack of trust is less direct. In response to a direct question, I have heard the answer “I like to keep my cards close to my vest.” This is another way of saying I don’t trust you…yet. A third, more frequent and more disturbing indication is when someone clearly tells you one thing and gives another person a conflicting version of the same incident. You can often immediately comprehend their motivation for self-interest, but the conflict sends a message of distrust that cannot be ignored.
Another measurable aspect of trust is the alignment of words and deeds. When someone fails to meet basic commitments, they betray any trust we have given them and make it harder to trust them in the future. The benefit of measuring this level of trust is that it is relatively straightforward by having your recruiter use “forensic referencing techniques” with both those people that the candidate supplies as well as some calls to their network to determine more silent references of those the lead candidate worked with.
By simply understanding and measuring trust, an organization can begin to lay the foundational building blocks for building a culture of trust. In thus doing, it will enjoy both the qualitative benefit of being a better place to work and the quantitative benefit of increased productivity.
At Buckland + Rempel, when we search for an executive who will succeed in a leadership role, we take into consideration critical components of “fit,” which is much more advanced than hard skills and candidates’ aspirations. By using the interviewing experience to measure “cultural fit” and “trust factor,” I hope you also, will become better at determining the “fit” of your next hire.